10 Actor/Director Team-Ups We Can’t Believe Never Happened

There are dream actor/director collaborations, and then there are the actor/director collaborations that seem like they should have just happened. But throughout movie history, something uncertain has got in the way of actor and director team-ups that seem like such sure things, it’s almost unbelievable they never happened.

10. Martin Scorsese and Al Pacino

In the 1970s, the choice was between two: De Niro or Pacino. Scorsese, as we know, went with De Niro, the two together creating some of the finest moments in all of cinema. But it seems absurd that Scorsese, a filmmaker with a keen eye for acting talent and for a period THE director of films about real Italian-American life, never once sought out Pacino – the other great Italian-American actor of the time – for a role.

And the time of them working together may already have passed, sadly, unless Scorsese’s next picture calls for a shouty hothead with a taste for histrionics – Pacino has, regrettably, moved on to unpredictable yelling and Sky TV ads, a far cry from his days of subtlety. But then, rumours of that long-gestating team-up still linger…

Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1